Thursday, March 1, 2012

Suicide Squad - First Arc Review / Discussion

Suicide Squad, at the very foundation from which all action takes its cues and direction, is smart. The
Squad is never given time to rest or recoup. Right, cause why should they? Burn
those suckers out. Definition of expendable that whole squad. It keeps
everything moving and exciting (or should). The Squad isn’t told all the
details of the mission either, they’re just given the gravity of the situation
(a city dies or the governments fall, those levels), at which point they bitch
they don’t have enough time left on the bombs implanted in their heads to
accomplish their goals, to which Waller (their handler) says “better get moving”. How else to motivate them?

Right
yeah, all good decisions, and there’s many more (no public face to the Squad another), but what’s
build on top of this sound structure is blah. It’s not crap. It’s just enough
to get the job done. The action straddles both worn-out and stupid. Prison
break-outs, infiltrating secret terrorist bases, zombie stadium. Nothing played
with with any real care or fun. They go to a place with four walls and kill
things. Each character has one weapon or attack and uses it exclusively. Their
enemies are fodder to such a degree it’s inconceivable any member of the Squad
could ever be seriously hurt.

That’s
blah but it isn’t bad. What’s bad, really fucking atrocious, is El Diablo. He’s
the most flat, boring, preachy character imaginable. I am telling you, all
people, that it is impossible to construct a worse character. If he does not
die soon, he will kill this book. You know the type of person that says the
same thing over and over, only changing the order of the words, but always
delivering the message with the same level of hammy overbearing? That’s him and
he pops up every other panel! Worse! He’s completely unneeded. The “conscience”
of the Squad is King Shark. And he did everything El Diablo wants to do in one
panel that was striking for how much it said and how easily it conveyed the
emotions of a monster character who’s speaking parts have been, thus far, “meat”
and laughing (it’s the one where he eats Yo-Yo for no reason, then grabs his
head in frustration, shame, defeat at his own nature. Beautiful).

I’m
hopeful for the on-going issues of the book though. Again, underlying decisions
are smart. And now the Squad is moving away from the generic action pieces.
Plus, from the beginning the art has been wonderful. Everyone saves the art for
last to talk about as though it were the cherry just to top the rest of the "real" work but I wouldn’t
be nearly as confident, nor have lasted this long, without Federico Dallocchio.
That one panel of King Shark was pitch perfect, There’s truth to the violence
being depicted without ever getting gory or excessive, which keeps the tone of
the book lighter. More easy to simply enjoy than pick apart. There have been
scenes which made El Diablo seem likable! I’m thinking the Squad will get better.